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Truth Through Numbers With Former White House Economic Policy Adviser Todd Buchholz

PRSA 2009 International Conference keynote speaker, former White House economic policy adviserTodd Buchholz talks about whether numbers are inherently more objective than language at communicating facts, communicating through raw data and number crunching truth in the digital age.

“On the Record…Online” returns as the official public relations podcast of the PRSA 2009 International Conference. Be sure to tune in as we’ll be talking to other Conference keynoters in the weeks leading up to the event, and interviewing several presenters and panelists on-site in San Diego as well.

1:20 – Former White House economic policy adviser Todd Buchholz, who is confirmed to keynote the upcoming Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) International Conference in San Diego, Nov. 7–10, 2009, shares a glimpse of what he’ll talk about in his presentation.

4:08 – How James Carville exploited what Buchholz said was a fairly mild recession in 1991 during U.S. President H.W. Bush’s administration on behalf of the Clinton Campaign.

8:28 – The sustainability of outsourcing as a business strategy, and how it will impact the American economy.

9:50 – Todd Buchholz shares what worries him most about the health and welfare of the American economy.

11:36 – Why critical thinking skills and an understanding of statistics will be essential to the professional success of future generations.

12:42 – A recent New York Times cover story on the hot job for college graduates today.

13:05 – How statistics are often used by government to mislead voters.

14:47 – Todd Buchholz responds to the following passage from Anand Giridharadas’ recent New York Times opinion piece, “Athens on the Net.”

“The headlines from Washington today blare of bailouts, stimulus, clunkers, Afpak, health care. But it is possible that future historians, looking back, will fixate on a quieter project of Barack Obama’s White House: its exploration of how government might be opened to greater public participation in the digital age; of how to make self-government more than a metaphor.”

15:21 – Whether or not numbers are inherently more objective than language at communicating facts.

15:45 – How Washington budget cuts result in the release of inaccurate, financial market driving information, and why we need to upgrade our statistics capabilities.

“If the Internet needed a further nudge from its pedestal, the health care debate obliged. From the administration’s point of view, the Web arguably proved better at spreading deceptions about “death panels” than at spreading truth, and at turning town halls into brawls than at nurturing the unfettered deliberation that some imagine to be the hallmark of the Internet.”

18:03 – Number crunching truth in the digital age.

21:08 – End

Todd Buchholz is a former White House director of economic policy, regular commentator on American Public Media’s “Marketplace,” past managing director of the $15 billion Tiger hedge fund and critically acclaimed author, including the critically acclaimed “Market Shock,” “New Ideas from Dead Economists,” “From Here To Economy” and “Bringing the Jobs Home.” He writes the popular “Global Markets” column as contributing editor for Worth magazine and has hosted his own special on CNBC. An award-winning economics teacher at Harvard where he won the Allyn Young Teaching Prize, he holds advanced degrees in economics and law from Cambridge and Harvard, as well as several engineering and design patents. He is also co-founder and managing director of Two Oceans Management, LLC., and co-producer of the Tony Award®-winning Broadway musical, “Jersey Boys.”

Eric Schwartzman is a new media and social media communications consultant, the creator of the top-rated Social Media and New Media PR Boot Camp, which has been attended by more than a thousand public relations and marketing executives from the private, public, government and nonprofit sectors. In addition to advising clients on best practices for online newsroom design, deployment and management, Schwartzman offers a portfolio of social media training courses to accelerate the acquisition of social media communication skills, as well as social media strategy and campaign support. Schwartzman is also the founder of online newsroom software as a service provider iPressroom. Connect with Eric on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

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